Leonore Tiefer

Leonore Tiefer's multi-faceted career as scientist and activist, researcher and educator, therapist and author has led her from animal laboratories to health clinics, from the classroom to the newsroom and finally to the streets to advocate against the medicalization of female sexuality. Concerned about the role of pharma in sexology in the 1990s, Dr. Tiefer convened the New View Campaign to raise awareness of potential professional conflicts of interest in pharmaceutical initiatives, and to challenge the notion of sexual variability as a disease or a disorder.

Through political and scholarly work, Tiefer and her colleagues assert that female sexual problems "should not be in the hands of reductionist research and marketing programs of the pharmaceutical industry, but rather should be treated by research and services that are driven by women's own needs and sexual realities."[1] She is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at both New York University School of Medicine and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and has a private psychotherapy and sex therapy practice in Manhattan.

Leonore Tiefer has donated over 900 monographs to the Institute Library, extensively covering topics such as Women’s Studies, Feminism, Clinical Psychology, and Human Sexuality, which have been incorporated into the library's holdings. Her collection also includes several educational videos, educational slides, and personal photo albums from her professional conferences. Archival collection currently in process.